Post Secret
Not kid friendly but fairly entertaining. This blog publishes postcards received of people revealing their innermost secrets.
Just Brakes Austin Review
Last time I got an oil change at Lamb’s they told me I needed new brake pads on my rear wheels. They said I may not make it to my next oil change, said they were about 80% worn. It would cost just over $200 for them to replace them. I passed thinking I would get a second opinion or see if I could get it done cheaper. 1100 miles later, and after several weeks of nervous driving, I searched online for a brake place in Austin and decided to stop early this morning on my way to work at this Just Brakes store: Just Brakes on 183 N.
It was a rainy morning, traffic was bad but I was the only one there when I arrived at 7:20 (they open at 7:00). They were situated between a Lube & Oil place and a full service car repair shop. All three shared the same parking area!
Well turns out the store manager Jason said that Lamb’s probably exaggerated and that I wasn’t in dire need to replace the break pads. My car lease was up in two months and there really wasn’t any reason to spend even the $99 for all 4 wheels that Just Brake offers.
How refreshing to deal with an honest repair shop. Jason showed me the break pads and made me feel good about his assessment. He stated they find the problem in the car not the customer, which addressed what I’m sure he knows is a common fear people have of dealing with car shops.
If you search Google for “Just Brakes” you will notice some hits for consumer complaints or rip-off reports related to Just Brakes. You’ll find similar hits on other car shops like Brake Check. I read these reports with a grain of salt. I know that in ANY business there will be complaints and that the complainers are the most vocal. But still, it made me a little nervous this morning as I headed to Just Brakes without a reservation (Break Check advertises 20% off if you have an appointment!).
I am happy to report that I had a terrific experience with Just Brakes and am thankful that Jason was there to greet me.
DVFilm Introduction Videos
I work with some nutty creative folks at DVFilm. Here is the latest in-house promotional video produced by Andy, Dave and Marc. You can view all our videos here on our YouTube channel.
Slumdog Millionaire 2008 (R)
Slumdog Millionaire **** – Sure it was good. Perhaps the fact I’ve seen City of God prevented me from being wowed by it. City of God was similar but much more intense. Slumdog could have been a lot more disturbing than it was and I’m glad it wasn’t! I liked that it had a happy ending.
CGI programming
I’ve never had an opportunity to work with CGI until now. CGI is defined on wikipedia this way:
The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, commonly a web server.
The task of such an information server is to respond to requests (in the case of web servers, requests from client web browsers) by returning output. Each time a request is received, the server analyzes what the request asks for, and returns the appropriate output. The two simplest ways for the server to do this, are the following:
- if the request identifies a file stored on disk, return the contents of that file;
- if the request identifies an executable command and possibly arguments, run the command and return its output
CGI defines a standard way of doing the second. It defines how information about the server and the request is passed to the command in the form of arguments and environment variables, and how the command can pass back extra information about the output (such as the type) in the form of headers.
Here is a great getting started article on CGI.
The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976 (PG)
The Outlaw Josey Wales ***** Great movie all the way through. Terrific non-patronizing potrayal of American Indians. Chief Dan George is hilarious. I jokingly compare the story to Room On The Broom, one of my favorite kids books. Josey keeps picking up assorted folks along his travels. Near rape-scene with brief nudity.
Punch Drunk Love 2002 (R)
Punch Drunk Love ** A bit plodding. Interesting but not memorable. Adam Sandler plays a sort of sad sack who gets in trouble after signing up with a phone sex service.
Stand By Me 1986 (R)
Stand By Me **** This classic has some rough language and shows 13 year olds smoking. River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton are terrific. It’s on the low end of the R rating. Recommended.
Some Kind of Wonderful 1987 (PG-13)
Some Kind of Wonderful ***** One of my favorite John Hughes coming of age movies. I loved Mary Stuart Masterson in it. Eric Stolz was ok though he seemed kind of uninspired throughout except for the tense scene with his father where he finally showed some emotion. Good story and great happy ending.
Monsters vs Aliens 2009 (G)
Monster vs Aliens *** Animation was great, it was entertaining and funny. It did not rise to the level of The Incredibles. I didn’t think the story was that strong or engaging. I found the monsters so arbitrary and hard to really care about, except for Susan who wasn’t really a monster. Kids loved it, of course.